T.C. Williams High School Wins the Green Innovation Award

A new state-of-the-art school, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, has won the Green Innovations Award in the Best Institutional Project category at the Virginia Sustainable Building Network's annual meeting. T.C. High was built according to the standards and principles from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED . The building was designed by Moseley Architects and built by the Hensel Phelps Construction Co. It will open on Sept. 4 for the 2007-08 school year.

Environmentally friendly features of the school include: "a 450,000-gallon underground cistern to collect and store rainwater for use in toilet flushing, air-conditioning operations and irrigation; a rooftop garden to provide stormwater management; waterless urinals to reduce the amount of water used inside the building; and a permanent measurement and verification system to track water and energy usage at the facility." The students have the opportunity to see their school's environmental footprint through the data collected at the central "dash board" in the Ferdinand T. Day Student Commons.

Want to tour the school to see what it is like? There is a Grand Opening Celebration for the Alexandria community on Oct. 14. For more information visit the ACPS (Alexandria City Public Schools) website .

Not to sound preachy or anything, but it is about time schools are built green. My only hope is that others follow suit. If you know of anymore schools that have a green design or are environmentally friendly in any way please feel free to post a link in the comments below so that we can cheer them on. You can also email me the information.

An interesting entrepreneurial opportunity just launched yesterday through Edison Nation (www.EdisonNation.com) – they’re looking to discover the best infomercial product idea for 2009.

For those who don’t know, Edison Nation is an online platform for individuals to submit new product ideas for review by big-name retailers and manufacturers. It’s basically a chance to cash in on your great ideas.

Edison Nation (www.EdisonNation.com) is partnering with really successful names in the infomercial industry, like the folks behind Floam, Smart Spin, Pasta Pro, Awesome Auger, Tony Little’s Gazelle, etc – to look for the DRTV Product of the Year for 2009.

Like myself you may have been put off by the cheesiness of infomericals, but this could actually be a serious entrepreneurial opportunity if your idea is chosen. Today, DRTV is actually a $24 billion industry.

Edison Nation’s site offers tips on the type of submissions that would have the greatest chance at infomercial success. It mentions the product categories the most successful DRTV products have come from over the years, as well as key questions to ask yourself about your product (i.e. Is your product's markup on cost of goods at least five to one ----(example: cost to manufacture is $1; sale price is $5?).

For those of you out there who might have an idea for the next great infomercial product to beat out the George Foreman or even Thigh Master, you should check out www.EdisonNation.com for details.

Advertisers are our main source of revenue. When we link to certain sites, we may receive a small commission for sales using our links. The opinions expressed on our website reflect the unbiased opinions of our reviewers. If we receive a free sample for review or a small fee to write an "advertorial", that is clearly noted in the article.